The factory modernization project, implemented by IDA Proses at the Sugar Factory, provided a 20 percent increase in production and enabled a 30 percent savings in the energy consumed. Murat Ağaçdiken, IDA Process Project and Technical Services Director, explains.
- Process Automation
- 23 October 2020 Friday 13:00
- Cem Karatay
The factory modernization project, implemented by IDA Proses at the Sugar Factory, provided a 20 percent increase in production and also enabled a 30 percent savings in the energy consumed. IDA Process Project and Technical Services Director Murat Agacdiken, explains the details of the project they carried out in cooperation with Schneider Electric, where they ensured the production of the highest quality sugar with uninterrupted production.
As IDA Process, we provide services in industrial automation with more than 20 years of experience. Our main products are; Schneider Electric brand DCS and PLC based process control and safety systems, industrial data management software, OT/IoT cyber security applications and process field instruments. We have a long-standing partnership with Schneider Electric. We consider our experience and Schneider Electric’s strong product range as our biggest advantage in the market. We work with very strong brands/products that are accepted all over the world, such as Ecostruxure M580 PLC, Citect Aveva Wonderware, Foxboro, Triconex within Schneider Electric. In addition, in the CPG segment, we provide services in the supply of process control and industrial data management, production management systems and process instruments.
THE TECHNOLOGICAL INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE FACTORY HAS BEEN MODERNIZED IN 4 MONTHS
We recently completed a very successful sugar factory modernization project with Schneider Electric. Schneider Electric has been very supportive of us at every stage from the signing of the contract to the completion of the project. In a period of 4 months, we modernized the technological infrastructure of the entire factory and programmed the production stages from scratch. The fact that the modernization processes of some sugar factories could not be completed in 2 years reveals how difficult the process is.
NON-STANDARD PRODUCT COOKING HAS BEEN PREVENTED
All processes, from the removal of mud from the field to the final product sugar, were redesigned during the arrival of the beet from the field to the Lime Quarry. The raw factory, press filters, cutters, refinery, lime kiln and treatment systems were included in the Ecostruxure Process Expert architecture, which was established to work in sync. In this Sugar Factory, the highest quality sugar of the factory was produced by making uninterrupted production with the “continuous firing method”, which was tried for the first time in the Refinery unit. It was possible to prepare yeast at higher standards compared to batch cooking. The system is designed in such a way that it can step backwards or forwards when an undesirable situation occurs during cooking. In this way, non-standard product cooking can be prevented.
THE ENTIRE PRODUCTION PROCESS IS RECORDED AND REPORTED
The most critical step of the cooking stages, “Raising Steps” was taken out of operator control and formulated according to brix and level curves and is now carried out automatically. This innovation minimizes sudden brx and level changes, providing continuous and proportional boosting. The drying stage after firing is also one of the key points of carefully prepared sugar. The new control algorithms of this process are carried out in the system. The entire production process is recorded and reported retrospectively.
THE GROUND IS PREPARED FOR THE TRANSITION TO INDUSTRY 4.0
A pair of redundant M580 controllers were located in the Raw Factory, Refinery and Lime Quarry, redundant DCS servers in the Center and operator stations in the control rooms. In the system, the network was established in ring topology. Therefore, it became a system with a very high “availability” with its ability to carry out the given commands.
INSTANT PROCESS AND TREND VALUES CAN BE MONITORED
Monitored process values were converted from OT level to IT level, laying the groundwork for the use of “artificial intelligence”, “machine learning” and “data management” tools in the future. By including every point of the factory in the control system, instant process and trend values were accessed via the web from executive computers and mobile phones. 8 thousand tons of beets are cut daily in the Sugar Factory. While the sugar produced with this input was around one thousand tons last year, this year an average of 1,200 tons of sugar is produced daily with continuous firing. This represents a significant increase of 20%. Again, with continuous firing, we have achieved a significant reduction in the amount of energy consumed. Natural gas boilers are working for the steam needed by the factory, and savings of up to 30 percent are observed in the energy consumed by the boilers last year and this year. We were very happy to be a part of this project. We would like to thank the Schneider Electric Industry Business Unit team for their continuous support from the beginning to the end of the project, the Sugar Factory team who trusted us in this project and provided their endless support in the field, and of course our technical team of IDA Process, who completed this difficult project without any problems.
